How to use multiple utilities simultaneously.

Sometimes you may need to use multiple utilities simultaneously and with various Vic-20 memory configurations. This is quite possible using the Mega-Cart, as long as you observe the memory location requirements of the utilities to ensure they don't clash. Fortunately, after selecting a utility from the software menu an information screen will show you what memory locations that particular utility requires (along with other information about the title).

For example, you cannot simultaneously use HESMON (which needs locations A0-AF or $A000-$AFFF) and BASIC V.4 (which also needs A0-AF) because they both occupy the same location in RAM. However, you can mix PROGRAMMER'S AID (70-7F or $7000-7FFF) and BASIC V.4 (A0-AF or $A000-$AFFF) since they use different memory location. Here is an example of how to do so using the Mega-Cart:

- From the Utilities menu, select "PROGRAMMER'S AID 70-7F"- A Vic-20 memory configuration menu is opened
- From this menu select any RAM configuration. It doesn't matter which you select at the moment. The preselected
RAM configuration of VIC+16K is fine.- The PROGRAMMER'S AID utility should start succesfully.
- Now reset the Mega-Cart using its built-in reset button.
- From the Utilities menu, select "BASIC V.4 A0-AF"- A Vic-20 memory configuration menu is opened.
- From this menu select the proper RAM configuration that works with both PROGRAMMER'S AID and BASIC V.4. (BASIC V.4 will work with any RAM configuration but because PROGRAMMER'S AID works in BLK3, if you select the VIC+32K+3K configuration BASIC V.4 will overwrite it. Any RAM configuration other than VIC+32K+3K is okay in this case.)

BASIC V.4 starts automatically because it resides on BLK5 while to start PROGRAMMER'S AID you need to type the proper SYS command (SYS28681 in this case).

This example demonstrates two utilities being used simultaneously, but you can combine more than two utilities if none of them use the same memory location (for example try adding "VICMON B0-BF" and "DISK UTILITY 60-6F" to see what happens).